The 'retro' feel had impacted on club design in recent years, with hybrids clubs showing a distinct feel of times gone by - only for the advent of the new square headed drivers, plus the ability to make a kitchen sink weight 2 ounces, to mean that a driver needs to be used with your eyes shut if you like aesthetics.

Clothing has caught the 60s bug, now that round necked (no neck?) shirts are lined up on every Pro Shop shelf - but then again that fad (back when Pop music was brilliant) didn't last. The game needs cycles, like anything else, to re-invigorate itself and to provide the business that any sport needs to grow. If the present cycles are pushing the boundaries too much, its how everything about the sport responds that will determine the future.

'Golf - Facts, Figures and Fun' takes a step back and a step forward at the same time. It might be small but it is perfectly formed and its oozes timeless quality in its construction, the cover colour, the use of pictures and cartoons, the fonts ... and its printed in China, the nation where golf will next take its grip on the populace.

Harris has a last, one page chapter, about the Future. He is very right when he describes how golf has changed and people are playing the game in different ways economically. The 'establishment' does have to respond but its most valuable resource is its history, of which this book does make much use of.

Class and bigotry were problems with the game in times gone by, with very small caches remaining still. Yet the history of the game is just as much about the artisans (working people) who played the game and the lives and times of the professionals whose skills were incredible and whose rewards the reverse - negligible compared to today's millionaires.

That's where 'Golf - Facts, Figures and Fun' is better editorially than other 'competition'. The Amateur game gets more than a passing mention although why the chapter on Ladies golf has the 'figures' for the British and US Women's Amateur and there are no Amateur Championship records from this side of the pond can only be because the author considered how Professional Ladies golf really only has two consistent 'majors'.

There were more than enough golfing stories and quotes I had not seen (or remembered) for this book to gain added kudos to go with its superb presentation. Worthy of a place in your golfing library? - very much a 'yes'.

Golfing Facts, Figures and Fu8n is written by Ed Harris and published by Facts, Figures and Fun - their web site is www.ffnf.co.uk.

It is a hardback book and priced at £ 5.99 and available at all good bookstores and on on-line retailers

The ISBN No is 1-904332-65-x